At East Valley International Church, we’ve witnessed the Holy Spirit move through digital downloads as powerfully as altar calls, reaching souls who may never enter our building but desperately need to collide with the living Christ.

Our generation craves authentic encounters while drowning in artificial connections. Into this paradox steps Jesus—not as a religious obligation, but as the Word who speaks fluently to humanity and meets us in our technological chaos. His authority awakens. His love revolutionizes.

We’ve embraced tools like Anthropic’s ClaudeAI, not as a departure from biblical ministry, but as an extension of it—a refusal to limit God’s reach by our own methodology. We believe Christ can meet anyone in their moment of need, whether in a sanctuary or at a cubicle.

Consider the individual at their office desk during lunch, the quiet hum of computers around them as they wonder, “Is this all there is?” or “What is my life really for?” In that moment of quiet seeking, they can encounter not abstract religious ideas, but the resonant truth of a God who knows their name and has a purpose for them, delivered through the means He sovereignly chooses.

This Sunday, we received a vision of our eternal home. In “A New City in Heaven,” we will stepped into the breathtaking finale of Scripture: the New Jerusalem descending to a perfected earth. This is more than a prophecy; it is a promise of total restoration offered to us—a future where God Himself wipes away every tear and makes all things new. Come with expectation to receive the blessing of a hope that reshapes your today.

Brother Zenjie unveiled this reality through “A New City in Heaven,” from Revelation, chapters 22 & 23. He showed how the final vision of Revelation isn’t one of wrath, but of welcome: a New Jerusalem descending to a perfected earth. This is the ultimate restoration—where every injustice is resolved, every sorrow comforted, and every broken thing made permanently whole.

Approximate reading time: 30 – 40 minutes.

Welcome to these expanded reflections, your personal companion for going deeper. They are designed to walk alongside Zenjie Caneda’s scriptural teaching, helping you unearth the beautiful truths buried in God’s Word.

It’s important to remember that while digital resources can frame insights and spark understanding, they are no substitute for the sacred alchemy of the Holy Spirit working through our brother’s heart during his sermon proclamation. The power of a live message, born from prayer and delivered with passion, is a unique and vital encounter.

Let these writings support your discovery, but don’t let them replace the source. We warmly urge you to immerse yourself in Brother Zenjie’s full presentation—whether you join online or in the room—because that’s where our community gathers to receive God’s full revelation. Think of this as your guide to the main event.

As you journey through both the message and these notes, do so with a hungry heart. Ask the Spirit to transform knowledge into encounter. Our ultimate aim is not just learning, but loving—a close communion with Christ that results in a practical faith, reshaping our everyday lives.

Download the PDF to print at home (19 pages): A New City in Heaven

Meet our Deacon, Zenjie Caneda.

Zenjie’s usually the one dodging the camera, but we managed to catch him in this candid moment!

We’re excited to welcome Zenjie Caneda as today’s guest speaker! Zenjie serves as one of our Deacons here at East Valley International Church, and if you’ve had the chance to get to know him, you know he’s the real deal—sincere, caring, and always ready to support the ministry and offer spiritual leadership. He’s currently teaching through the book of Hebrews in a Zoom study that meets every other Friday evening for our members, so if you haven’t joined yet, you’re missing out!

When he’s not serving at church, Zenjie brings that same dedication and attention to detail to his work as a Principal Test Engineer at Dialog Semiconductor right here in Phoenix. He’s spent over two decades in the semiconductor industry, starting his career in Singapore back in 2000 and eventually making his way to Rhode Island with ON Semiconductor for nearly 20 years. In 2021, he and his family landed in Arizona, and we’re grateful they did!

In his role, Zenjie is the technical guru who makes sure those tiny chips in your smartphones, laptops, and smart home devices actually work the way they’re supposed to before they reach your hands. He designs testing strategies, mentors younger engineers, and writes the complex programs that put semiconductors through their paces. It’s pretty impressive stuff, and we’re blessed to have someone with his wisdom and heart leading us in worship today.

[Click here] to read the full transcript of Brother Zenjie’s sermon [Click again to close]

Good morning. Just a disclaimer, I’m not a pastor. I’m just setting the record straight at the very beginning. But I’m so thankful for Pastor Joey for giving us the opportunity to be standing here before you in the pulpit. It’s so hard to get a good night’s sleep. Thank you, Pastor Joe. I know it’s trying to kind of collect myself still. What am I going to talk about? I have like 12 pages of commentary here, but I’m not going to be able to even remember a single word from it. So… we’ve got this place today.

And, you know, we’re taking a little bit of a detour from the book of Luke. Our pastor has been going through that for almost a third. We’re done with a third of all the chapters here. So, for this time, we’re going to get the last book of the Bible. So, let’s turn to the very last pages of your Bibles. We’re focusing, we’re setting our sight on Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

So I would say, and I believe it with all of my heart, these last two chapters of Revelation, I believe, are the most hopeful chapters in the entire Bible. And most of you have been a Christian for many years, and I’m sure you realize it by now. Not everything in this life, no matter how seemingly good it is, is touched in some way by sin, by evil, corruption, and death. Everything in this world is being touched by what happened in the fall in the Garden of Eden.

I know some of you, this may sound strange. We all have a longing in our hearts because we struggle with this every day. We struggle in the sense that things ought to be different, that things ought to be better than all of this. And the longing in our heart is there for a reason. I think it’s Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 11. It says there that God set eternity in the heart of every man.

And C.S. Lewis, which is one of my favorite authors, actually in his book, *Mere Christianity*—that’s the first ever Christian book I ever read in English—he said there that, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world could ever satisfy, the most probable explanation is I was made for another world.” And it’s so true because we struggle so much with sin. We also struggle so much with imperfection and our fallen state. The wars in the world, the natural disasters and the toil and the sweat that we experience on this planet… This could be a better place than this.

And I know in my heart that we Christians all long for a perfect place where we can put all of these things behind us. We believe from God’s word that there is one glorious place coming after this life. And it’s a place where time stops, where sin stops, and it’s where death stops. Where the current created order stops to exist and God just makes things right. And God just makes things perfect.

And these last two chapters of the book of Revelation of the Bible give us a brief insight into what… the heavenly city of God, which will be the center of the new heaven and the new earth, and we’re going to talk about that, is where God will reside with us and tabernacle with us forever. And this is where you and I will be spending eternity with the Lord. And this is where God intends for all of His people to put their hope forward and to live forward. And if it sinks in and grabs hold of your heart, it will change the way that you live your life forever. So those who have ears, let them hear.

The beginning of Revelation chapter 21, I would say at this point, human history is over. I know Pastor Joey went through the book of Revelation and this is the very last two chapters. And I said to myself that before the Lord gets me or takes me away, I need to preach about heaven. I’m also thinking about preaching about creation. And hopefully I will be given a chance by a beloved pastor that I can do that again.

And in this time, time has run out and we step into a brand new realm that we can barely imagine. And that is eternity. And from here on out, the things that we’re all going to be reading in chapter 21 to 22 are forever. And the first thing that God is going to do as He prepares a home for us, it says there that heaven and earth are going to pass away and they will be found no more. If you look at verse 1, chapter 21. That’s the old heaven and the old earth.

And the first thing that God does in order to prepare us for eternal homes is to destroy the heavens and the earth that now exist and create something brand new. So it is new in form, it is new in substance, it is new in nature. The Bible tells us a little bit more about what’s going to happen in that day. 2 Peter 3, verse 7, it reads, “But the heaven and the earth, which are now preserved by the same Lord, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” And then in verse 10, “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”

And the letter to the Colossians says, by whom all things consist. So, Jesus is literally holding the atoms of this universe together. I’m sure some of you will kind of grapple with that very idea. But we as believers, we know that with certainty. Scientists like Einstein and Oppenheimer have told us what happens when the atom is split. When all those positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons begin to suddenly burst apart, the very elements will begin to melt and dissolve with intensity. And in the end, that’s what the Lord is going to do. He’s just going to let go and everything that we’ve ever seen, everything that we’ve ever experienced in life as we know it, it is going to dissolve the earth and the heavens with a fervent heat.

And when that happens, God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. The Old Testament says in Isaiah 65, verse 17, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.” You have to remember, Isaiah was written 700 years before the coming of Christ. The book of Revelation was written around AD 90. St. John doesn’t know who Isaiah is. But all that harmony and how each of the book of Bible built up for 1600 years or 1500 years with different authors, they’re all pointing into one thing, into one set of figures, Jesus Christ, and to this very place that we all long for. It’s what we call heaven.

So this isn’t just a renovation that we’re talking about here, or new shingles, or a galvanized roof in the Philippines. We’re talking about starting over. And the word there, in the verse of Isaiah, is the word *bara*, which means to start from nothing. To start completely over from scratch. And only God, and we know that, has the creative power to make things, *ex nihilo*, out of nothing. And that’s what God is going to do in the end.

I don’t know if that means that we’ll be with Him when He does it, and we will watch Him release the atoms, and we’ll watch the elements of this universe melt away, and we’ll watch Him say, “let there be light” all over again, and let there be an earth all over again, and let there be a new heaven, and we’ll be able to actually watch Him speak these things into existence. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen or not. And we can only imagine because of the things in the book of Revelation. They’re written in a very symbolic language, but I believe can also be taken very literally, like the things of the Old Testament, the tabernacle, the temple, were all symbolic in types, but they were also literal. So these things, I believe with all of my heart, are very literally going to happen.

Either way that you look at it, this earth, the Bible says, is going to pass away. It’s going to suit some purposes, and when those purposes are over, it’s going to be done away with then. The new heaven and the new earth are going to be a brand new type of universe that we have never ever experienced, and it’s going to be governed by totally different laws. There’s not going to be any more second law of thermodynamics. Scientists tell us that this universe that we live in today is losing energy and winding down and falling apart and disintegrating and going from order to lesser order. But the new heavens and the new earth are going to be the eternal thing that exists on the eternal energy that would last forever.

Keep in mind that as John is writing this letter, the old Jerusalem, the physical Jerusalem in Israel, had been sacked now, so there was no Jerusalem. When John was writing this around AD 90, the Romans destroyed that city. But John says, there’s going to be a new city in heaven, coming down out of heaven from God, in verse 2. The New Jerusalem will stand in contrast to the Jerusalem that exists now, that although this Jerusalem is the one that when He comes and rules and reigns, but it’s also being touched by sin. So it’s being touched by corruption. In fact, you will find the Jerusalem in Revelation 11:8 being referred to as Sodom and Egypt, a city tainted by evil, and you can read it for yourself on your own. But this is the New Jerusalem, a brand new one, and it’s even called the Bride of Christ. The new city is going to be the Bride of Christ which speaks of the intimate relationship that Jesus is going to have with all of those who live in this city. And we know being a city, it speaks of community that we live in eternity in community with one another.

When we look at the cities of this earth, anywhere, when you get a large concentration of people, men and women, living together, it’s usually not too long before it becomes, I would say, a rotten place. But this city will be a holy and a pure sinless city. It’s going to be a completely stunning place. And I can only imagine that. It will be like a bride adorned for her husband. So we know it’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be prepared especially by the Lord for us.

And that’s my introduction. We’re going to go to our verses now in Revelation 21, starting in verse 10. “And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain, and He showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

So John is now describing the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, that we mentioned a couple of minutes ago. Now this city is being described to us here in human terms, anthropological terms, so that we can understand it. But also, if you look at it, if you really look at it, I know with our mind’s eye, God is telling us and giving us an understanding of how the general appearance of the city would be like. And again, we can only imagine with our mind’s eye, but we are not going to be able to understand it all with these puny brains. Whatever these things mean here, I know again that it’s going to be a place that’s absolutely perfect. The color will be perfect. The temperature will be perfect. We’re not going to have 180 degrees Fahrenheit. And it says there even its dimensions are perfectly symmetrical. Everything is going to be perfect in heaven.

I kind of pause because I got all my friends here. I’ll be working on all these semiconductors. So we test chips pretty much, my friends here. So I was thinking that when I learn about all of this, that I think we’re not going to have any work in heaven. Because what we do is we test chips for a living, right? So it goes through a process, the wafer fab, then assembly, and then it goes to us, and we design the hardware, the software to test it. And the reason for that is we need to test the chips, so that it will fall within a targeted specification, so that when it goes into your phone, it will not blow up, or it will not make any calls at all, because it’s designed to make a call, like the chips that you put there, okay?

So we’re not gonna have any job in heaven, because we’re not gonna be testing for any of those chips. Because as soon as you develop the chip, it’s perfect right away. There’s no distribution, as you call it, like a curve, a Gaussian curve, because it’s going to be just one single measurement all the time. And it just boggles my mind. And I mean, you can actually explore your mind and the infinity of God’s mind and what’s going to be when we are in heaven, right? And all we have here, it’s so limited. We are so limited by our finite mind. The finitude of our mind actually limits our capability. I know some people would just say it’s just a matter of time. No. God created us initially as perfect human beings, but we failed. If not for that, then I think we will still be explorers. We’re going to explore. That’s what he intended us to do, right? Explore and subdue the planets, but we became selfish, right? We thought of ourselves first and we fell.

Here, okay, I’m going to quote C.S. Lewis because it’s my favorite. He said about heaven in his book, *The Problem of Pain*, he said, “your place in heaven will seem to be made just for you because you were made just for it.” And that’s true. This place that we’re going to spend eternity in… Literally, the city is a light bearer. It says that light is like a jasper in verse 11, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. And that when you see the word jasper in your New Testament, it’s most likely speaking of a diamond. It’s speaking of a very clear stone, a very precious stone. And I can say with certainty that we’re talking about diamond here. But most of the theologians agree that it’s not the jasper that we now have that’s a little bit opaque, but rather it’s a diamond like as clear as crystal. And we’re going to see that.

God is going to be the source of light in heaven. So God is going to be shining. You can start to imagine this thing as it comes down and begins to rest on the new earth for eternity is going to be gleaming. Gleaming like a diamond in the sand. The city itself is a diamond reflecting light coming from the very heart, the very heart of it which is the throne of God. And God’s presence will be in it. God’s Shekinah will rest upon it and will manifest there as a shining light for eternity.

Now we go to verse 12. “He had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels. And on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed, and on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

And so interestingly, as John sees this scene and begins to describe it, I can tell for sure that he was in all likelihood blown away at what the city looks like. This is the most incredible sight that anybody has laid eyes on, this heavenly city, New Jerusalem. And John can’t even seem to just get over the outside appearance of the city. In fact, he begins writing to us about the walls, the gates, and even the foundations.

So you know, when you go to one of these elaborate houses, maybe up in Scottsdale or Paradise Valley, you don’t come back saying, “man, you should have seen the foundation of the house.” You just don’t really do that. We used to live in West Warwick, Rhode Island. There’s a seaside city there southeast of Providence. It’s called Newport that you can visit if you want to see big mansions. So those mansions offer a unique trip through 250 years of American history, architecture, art, landscape design. So when you go and see those mansions, you don’t really take notice of something like the foundation. But here John is even blown away at the foundations of the scene.

And the one reason that John is blown away is because they’re beautiful, as we will see. But also, on another reason, and that is me thinking selfishly here for John, that John is being blown away by the foundations of these walls because his name is inscribed on one of these foundations. It says there that the names of the 12 apostles are inscribed on these 12 foundations. So John is getting this heavenly vision, this revelation of this holy city, New Jerusalem, and he sees his name written on one of these jewel foundations. And it’s amazing that the names of sinners are going to be inscribed in heaven. And this whole heavenly city speaks of God’s grace, and I can imagine what it felt like for John. He realizes God took him up to heaven in this revelation and he saw this heavenly city, New Jerusalem. I can only imagine what it felt like for John to look at his name inscribed here on this jewel foundation and realize that all of the labor, all of his blood and sweat and tears being exiled, being imprisoned, being boiled in oil, being beaten for his testimony, all of his labor for the gospel of Jesus Christ has made it all, has made it all to heaven, and was there permanent in the jewel foundation.

So to realize that everything I labor for in my life, in the name of Christ, all those things I did for the Lord, are going to remain for eternity, and that’s something that you and I are going to experience as well, as we do serve the Lord in our earthly ministry, except our name will not be inscribed in one of these foundations, just like that.

“The one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width, and he measured the city with its rod, 12,000 stadia, its length and width and height are equal.”

Some of you are probably scratching your head what a stadia unit is. So again, we’re getting to some detail here that really doesn’t mean a whole lot until you take some time to study, get out and ponder it. But we’re getting the measurements now. On this heavenly city, it says that it measured 12,000 stadia. In some translation, it’s furlongs. That’s the word that we use. 12,000 stadia deep and 12,000 stadia high. And that’s about… 1,500 miles on each side of the city. And some people believe it’s around 1,400, but let’s keep it simple, it’s 1,500. So that means that this heavenly city, New Jerusalem, is big enough to go from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, or Gulf of America now, and from New York to Denver. So you can see it on the screen. That’s how big this place is on every side.

And it’s laid out, it says, as a square. Now, I personally believe, and you can read some of the commentaries, that this is laid out as a cube. And it says it’s four square, and its length and its width and its height are all equal. It’s all symmetrical in all sides. So it’s going to be a cube. So it’s going to be actually 1500 miles high to see what it is. And one of the many reasons theologians believe that it’s going to be a cube is because the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple in the Tabernacle was a cube. You can look it up for yourself too. And that was God’s plans, as He says, the kings of the temple in the Tabernacle in the Old Testament pictures, types, pointing to this. And I believe that this heavenly city in New Jerusalem will be laid out as a cube.

And in fact, again, this is speculation. Can’t say it dogmatically, but if in fact it is a cube, and it’s measured all these miles on every side, then that means that within the city, the heavenly city in New Jerusalem, there will be calculated 3,375,000,000 cubic miles within the city based on 1,500 miles that are mentioned for each side. So if you’re more on square miles, it’s just 1,500 times 1,500, so it’s going to be 2,250,000 square miles per face. And we’re talking about things here. Right here, this side, this side. And imagine this, we’re in a resurrected body, we’re in a glorified body. Imagine the capability that God will put in our bodies and what we can do there, right? So we can probably, right now we’re walking horizontally, maybe we can also traverse vertically there. So no one knows. We’re in our glorified bodies when we get there.

And Dr. Henry Morris, founder of the Creation Research, and the most influential creationist of the 20th century, does some math here based on the literal interpretation of the dimensions of the city. And it’s in the book *Revelation Record*. I haven’t actually read it. I guess most of these are from the commentaries. And even John MacArthur is actually mentioned about this. So he does some math here. And he goes a little bit probably beyond, which you and I will tend to go beyond, because he’s got this kind of scientist mind.

So he says that if we would each get a cubicle, or room, or mansion, in a heavenly city that big, now, keep in mind that you and I are going to be in our glorified bodies again, right? So we’ll be able to do a lot of things. And so, this is things laid out… and we got all these cube models in there, if you do the math, and again, hypothetically say that, let’s just say that there were like 20% of all the people that have ever lived from the beginning of the history until now, or until the coming of Jesus Christ, and then the millennium, through the end of the millennium, if 20% of the people who would ever live on planet earth made it to heaven, hypothetically, and of course, allowing some room for some abortions and miscarriages here. So let’s say there’s been 20% make it to heaven, which could be very, very generous by some people’s estimation. Because Jesus said, the road to eternal life is narrow, and the majority of people are not going down the road.

But if you, from Adam and Eve all the way to Noah, and the people that have populated the earth at that time, again, keep in mind, there’s incredible life spans during the time, and then the flood happens, and you go all the way up to Jesus Christ, and then into our day, and then, let’s say, 100 billion people. Let’s make it simple. So 20% of them may get to heaven, and that’s 20 billion. It’s a typical math, which is really forgiving by loose estimation. So 20 billion people in heaven.

So Dr. Henry Morris gave the math. If every one of those 20 billion people got, or in some translation, a mansion—we read it in John 14, Sister Kendra read about it, that he promised to the apostles—that means from the calculation, three-quarters of the city will still be left over. Think about it. And what is 75 square miles? You can do the calculation too, right? 200 times 200… Now I forgot the amount. 200 by 210 is one acre. It’s not really one acre. That’s around 4,000. Right? And we’re talking about 75,000 acres here. That is so big. And there’s still going to be three-quarters of the whole area of the cube would be left for, I would say, parks, maybe museums, I don’t know, mountain alps, and rivers and streams, right? So again, just making some sort of good, like an educated guess here, as per Dr. Henry Morris. So there’ll be plenty of room. And again, besides from becoming in and out of the city, and there’ll be plenty of infinity for us to explore. And I think that’s what the angels by the gates will be doing, welcoming us back, or sending us away. Like a home for us or whatever. Right? So they’re standing right at the gate. So it’s just amazing when you think about it. It’s really awesome. Right? So it’s going to be a marvelous place. And that’s just the beginning.

Because check this out. Verse 17 and 18. “He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.”

So looking now at the wall that surrounds the city. So John tells us that it measures 144 cubits. You know what a cubit is? A cubit is how we measure it is from here to here. So that’s about 18 inches, like a one and a half feet. So if you calculate it, it’s also, a cubit is half a yard. So, so it’s gonna be like 72 yards or 216 feet. And the question is, is that gonna be 216 feet high or 216 feet thick? And most people suggested that it’s not the height of the wall. If the city is 1500 miles high, it wouldn’t do much good to have a 216 foot high wall. So it looks like there’s no doubt from my mind that the measurement is the thickness of it. Either way, you look at it, there’s a wall going around the heavenly city, New Jerusalem. It’s 216 feet of pure diamond crystal. Wow.

Okay, we know that the modern, you can Google it, the modern jasper is often opaque. So the biblical jasper is portrayed as clear as crystal and radiant, similar to the appearance of the diamonds. The city is pure gold that is like glass. So you know what makes gold? I mean, you know gold is opaque, right? It’s yellow. But you know what makes gold that yellow color? Some people believe that it’s actually impurities in it. And the finer, the purer the gold gets, the more transparent it gets. It becomes purer, more translucent, and clearer it gets. A city of gold that is clear like glass, surrounded by a wall of jasper like diamond. And that’s just gonna make my wife Lani’s ring or necklace looks really, really sad. And even after we’ve seen 30 grams of gold necklace. So it’s a 216-foot thick diamond running around the city. And when the light goes on… “The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.”

So get this, really. Underneath this 216-foot diamond wall that goes around the city are 12 jewel foundations. And it says that those foundations under this huge, incredibly beautiful diamond wall are actually solid jewels. There are 12 of them. So if there’s 12 of them, that means that every one of these jewel foundations goes for 500 miles in each direction before it changes into another foundation or another kind of stone. And you can see the color of each stone in the projector screen. And I know it doesn’t do justice of telling you how it looks.

And again, the first foundation is going to be jasper, which is again a clear like diamond, if not diamond, although, again, the earthy jasper is mostly multi-colored opaque minerals, so this is most likely John is referring to heavenly jasper as being described here. The second jewel, well, it says it’s going to be sapphire, which is a brilliant blue. The third, chalcedony, which is sky blue with streaks of yellow. Emerald, which is the deep green, that’s where… That’s where I’ll be, that’s where my mansion probably will be standing. And I’ll be on the emerald. And it goes on until the last one, which is amethyst, which is the 12th foundation, which is violet in color. And that may be some of your mansions will be. And I just speak from this variety of stones and colors here.

So keep in mind that, again, these 12 foundations are going to be underneath a 216-foot diamond wall. That means all of the colors of these 12 foundations will be reflecting and refracting through this diamond wall like a giant prism. And that’s what the city is going to look like that you and I will experience for eternity. And it’s… I mean, we can only imagine what it’s like. Anybody wants to go to heaven?

Then we get to the gates. In verse 21, “the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” So the streets in heaven are made out of gold. You know, when I’m going through this, I know sometimes it’s hard to believe. Are these really true? Or is this just a pipe dream? No, this is true. If you go to Chapter 21, verse 5, thank God. The angel instructed John, “write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And I believe it in my heart, it is.

It says there, this pavement there is gold. And it says that gates are made out of one giant pearl, single pearl. These gates have got to be massive. And this is where we get, of course, the name pearly gates. So the pearly gates of heaven, all of the gates of heaven, are going to be made out of one single giant pearl. So again, you imagine that every one of these 12 foundations is going to go for 500 miles, and then on, and then there’s going to be a gate, because there’s 12 gates, and I’m just going to imagine their measurement, they may be spaced out equally around the city, 500 miles of jewel foundation, and then a gigantic pearly gate, and maybe even at the same height of 1500 miles also, and then another jewel foundation speaking with a different color, and then another big giant pearly gate. So going all around the city are these pearly gates.

And of course we understand that a pearl is something that speaks of beauty caused through pain. That’s important for us to think about. If the gates into the heavenly city in Jerusalem are made out of pearl, think about how a pearl is formed. A pearl is formed when a grain of sand or some other irritation gets into the oyster. So we know jewel from stone or from whatever ore, right? So this is the one, jewel is produced by the earth. Pearls form from an irritation, so a grain of sand gets into the oyster and it coats it with this nacre, pearl, until it’s no longer an irritation. So all you see is the pearl, and you won’t see the irritation anymore. And this is an awesome picture of what heaven is going to be all about for us. The gates of this heavenly city in Jerusalem being made out of pearl, are going to speak of the sacrificial love of Jesus for us, and what it cost Him. He took my real irritation and has coated me with the robe of righteousness until all the Father sees is righteousness and perfection. And it will be here. And it will be a reminder in the city, forever and ever. And ever. That is what heaven is all about.

Now, verse 22. “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there—and they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”

So in that, it says there’s no more temple there. And why is that? Because there’s no need for an abode of God. Because God will literally occupy this and His base of glory in the whole of the new heaven and new earth. There’s no need for a cathedral. There’s no need for a church. You don’t need to go and look to rent a place for a church again. It’s no need for everyone to go anywhere to worship God because there won’t be any temple. Why? “For the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple.” And do you know what that says? That says literally God Himself is the temple. It’s just the very presence of God and Christ.

So, it’s going to be great, it’s going to be breathtaking. The jewels and the pearls and the walls, if you can wrap your mind around it. But you know, when we get to heaven, it’s not going to matter. None of those things are going to matter because God, our God, will be there. And He will be the central point. It’s going to be what makes heaven, heaven. And God, in the Lamb’s glory, it says here, is going to light this whole thing up. There will be no need, it says, for the sun, for the moon, for shining anymore. Because the Lord will be the light. And the Lord will be the light of the city of heaven. And there won’t ever be a night. There’ll never be a night that we’ll never have to sleep because I’d like to sleep, but we’re not going to sleep there anymore. Because what? Because we’ll be in our resurrected body and have all entered into eternal rest. We discussed that in the Bible study. We will be continually refreshed all the time.

So heaven, heaven. Remember the land of Canaan that we studied about? It’s a picture of eternal rest. That’s going to be our future home. So sleep will be a thing of the past. Like weariness, darkness, you’re not going to know them anymore. And this new Jerusalem is… It’s such a glorious city to behold. I got so much here. It’s already 10 to 12. I’m not going to be able to finish.

I’m just going to say that in verse 27, “nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false.” We’re reading the final chapters of the Bible about heaven. But not everybody is going to heaven. Not everybody will be in heaven. And that’s something that God wants to get across very clearly to us through the Holy Spirit. Nothing corrupt will be there. Nothing touched by sin will be there. Nothing that causes pain, sorrow, or suffering, or anguish at all will be allowed to enter into this heaven.

You can go to verses, start in verses 6 up to 9. I’m not going to go through that. When we talk about the general appearance, the exterior design of heaven, how about the interior right now? Probably, I’m just going to say here that in chapter 22, it describes a river flowing from God’s throne in New Jerusalem. It says, a river of life that flows out from the throne of God, and the Lamb who is our Lord. No more sea, it says there. Verse 1. So this is not a river like we know that goes through the same hydrological cycle we learned in grade school. And the very fact that there is no longer any sea in the future, new heaven and new earth, indicates that it will be of a completely different order than anything that we can understand in this life. And you will probably ask, what is it? I don’t really know. So it’s a water of life. It’s as clear as crystal, but all we know, it’s ever flowing, and it’s ever ascending, because it comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb, across this crystal city, splashing across the transparent gold. And this certainly adds to the beauty of the glory of this place.

And it… We’ll also get to eat in heaven. There’s one question I was watching the YouTube when I was preparing this. One of the things they asked are we removing anything or are we replicating better? So what are going to happen? So of course we don’t know. We don’t know what it’s going to be like, but we’ve got to eat in heaven. Like the Lord ate on his glorified body. So I like that. There will be foods. The tree of life. This tree here, the tree of life, is perhaps like the tree from the Garden of Eden. And in Genesis 2:9, in the story of Adam and Eve, lost access to it because they took of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And God says, I will remove them from the Garden of Eden so that they will live with a limited lifespan. Because if God did not do that, they’re going to continually have access to the tree of life, and they will be fed from it. And all the sickness that came into them after they disobeyed God, you can just imagine. I know then is the age of, right? So when we all get old, our body starts falling apart. Just imagine, right? Falling apart all the time. And God loves our arthritis and rheumatism. And then you’re living forever. So I can’t imagine a life like that.

But God is so gracious. That He created time. His full time existence. And said I’m going to give humanity a limited life time, in order to live life out. And once that life is over, and decisions are made then, they get to spend eternity in a place where they are whole, and they are healed, and they are completely set free. Is it going to be the same tree applied? I don’t know. But it says it’s there. And it’s going to have 12 kinds of fruits. And it just speaks of variety.

Have you ever thought of that as important? Because it won’t be any fun to play basketball anymore because everybody will make every shot, right? Even in football, if you watch football, if you have a perfect offense and a perfect defense, no one’s going to be able to score a touchdown. And Randy loves to play golf. Every time he swings, he’s going to be hitting a hole in one. So imagine that. So everything will be perfect. So what are we going to do up there? We won’t be able to improve or anything because we’ll be perfect at anything. There won’t be anything to make maybe, but I don’t know because I think we will make a lot of things, right? But again, as I mentioned, start imagining the infinite mind of God. And do you understand the variety of God’s mind? If you think for one minute it’s going to be boring, you haven’t even begun to see one billionth of what it’s really like in a perfect world. When the unlimited, creative mind of God sets itself loose. I mean, it’s going to be incredible serving in ways which are absolutely beyond our ability to comprehend.

I just want to say that the last words of the Old Testament in Malachi 4, it says there that if you don’t obey the law of Moses, I will come and I will smite you with a curse. But the last descriptive words in the New Testament finishes out the Bible. It says there there will be no more curse. And in the millennium, the curse will be partially removed, but in heaven, it will be removed totally, forever, fully, and we shall serve Him forever.

Now, finally, all these little glimpses that we’re getting of heaven now, just in these final two chapters of the Bible, it’s just something that as the Spirit gives us the longing for this place, this healing is something that only God can make real in our little hearts, and only God can begin to develop in each one of our hearts. This is a brief picture of heaven. This is where you and I will spend our eternity, and your brain may struggle with some of these things that we talk about. Just again, let God minister to your heart the truth of these things.

All the things down here on the earth, all the glitters, all the things that make people rave about, New York City and Las Vegas and places like that… you know these things down here on earth are nothing but cheap Halloween imitations of what God has for us in eternity. And you know Satan is the god of this world and Satan is down here with his neon exploding pain and light bulbs, he’s trying to make these places like home to us. He’s trying to keep this planet from rotting and falling apart and from being revealed for what it really is. But this is the real thing that we’re reading about. This is it. This is heaven.

So, the question before we finish is, do you believe these things? Do you really believe these things? Because if we do, our lives are going to be a lot different. And throughout all the ages of history, the men and women of God looked for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And it should change our lives and light the fire in us to make us live differently for Him, for God, for our world.

That’s why I can’t wait for this moment. For I will fulfill the reason I was created in the first place. That is to, one, glorify God, and enjoy Him forever. And even now, I will be glorified forever. And all glory belongs to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So let us pray.

Father, we can only imagine the picture of what you’ve shown to us today, Lord, how amazing it will be for all of us, longing for this place that you set in all of our hearts, Father. This is something that we long for. This is the reason why we live for you. This is the reason why you save us, Father, so that we will be able to enjoy our lives for eternity with you, and be in the place that you promised to us.

Lord, I ask that you sketch, or even put it in our hearts, that it will impact the way we see things, the way we live, the way we conduct ourselves, and all of the things that we do in our lives, Father. You are such an awesome and great God, Father. And thank you for giving us the opportunity to present it to those who don’t know you, Father. And that’s what you commissioned us to do, Lord. To tell them about your love. Tell them about the good news. That you sent your Son here, Lord, he died for our sins, so that forever we’ll be able to be with you and we’ll be able to cover not only this eternal state.

Lord, put this in the heart of every individual sitting here, right here in this place. You say this is faithful, Lord. You say this is true. And we believe you, Father. You asked John to write this down so that 2,000 years, 2,000 years, there will be people right here on this building, across Recker and Elliot, that we’re going to be here, that we’re going to be speaking about this. Lord, we’re going to be speaking about the hope that we have in you, the hope that we have in Christ, that we will be able to share it with others who don’t know you, Father.

Lord, change the heart, transform the heart of every people, Lord. Hear the wonders, the marvelous promise of heavenly rest for all of us, Father. This is for your glory. This is for your name. We ask this in the name of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

A New City in Heaven

Comprehensive Bible Study and Sermon on Revelation 21-22

INTRODUCTION

The book of Revelation concludes with one of the most breathtaking visions in all of Scripture: the New Jerusalem, a glorious city descending from heaven to a renewed earth. After chapters filled with judgment, tribulation, and spiritual warfare, God pulls back the curtain to reveal the eternal home He has prepared for His people. This isn’t merely symbolic poetry—it’s the ultimate destiny of all who belong to Christ. Everything wrong will be made right. Every tear will be dried. Every broken thing will be restored.

As we study Revelation 21-22, we discover that heaven isn’t a distant, ethereal realm where we float on clouds playing harps. Instead, it’s a tangible, physical reality—a magnificent city where God dwells with His people forever. This is where history has been heading since Genesis 3. This is the promise that sustained martyrs through persecution, comforted believers through loss, and gave hope to the suffering church throughout the ages.

PART ONE: THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH (Revelation 21:1-8)

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (v.1)

The Renewal of All Things

John begins with the most comprehensive statement imaginable: everything will be made new. The Greek word for “new” (kainos) doesn’t mean brand new in existence, but new in quality—renewed, refreshed, transformed. This isn’t annihilation and re-creation, but restoration and perfection of what God originally made.

Peter explains this renewal in 2 Peter 3:10-13,¹ describing how the present heavens and earth will be purged by fire and renewed. Just as our bodies will be resurrected and transformed (not replaced), so the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:19-22).²

The sea was no more – In ancient symbolism, the sea represented chaos, danger, and separation. In Revelation, it’s where the beast emerges (13:1³). Its absence signifies complete peace, safety, and unity. No more barriers between peoples or lands.

The Holy City Descends (v.2)

“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

This is stunning: the city comes DOWN. Heaven comes to earth, not the other way around. God’s original intention was always for heaven and earth to unite—for His dwelling place to be with humanity in a physical realm. The garden of Eden was this holy ground where heaven touched earth. The New Jerusalem is Eden magnified and perfected.

The bridal imagery is deliberate. The city IS the bride (the church), but it’s also described as a place. We are both the people and the dwelling. This metaphor captures the intimacy, beauty, and covenant relationship between Christ and His church.

God Dwelling With His People (v.3-4)

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

This is the climax of the entire Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s passionate desire has been to dwell with His people:

Eden: God walked with Adam and Eve
Tabernacle: God’s presence in a tent among Israel
Temple: God’s glory filled Solomon’s temple
Incarnation: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14)
Church: “You are the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19)
Consummation: God dwells with us forever in the New Jerusalem

Every previous dwelling was temporary, partial, or limited. This is permanent, complete, and unhindered.

The End of Suffering (v.4)

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Notice God Himself wipes away tears—this is tender, personal, intimate. The list of what will be NO MORE is comprehensive:

No more tears – Every sorrow healed
No more death – The last enemy defeated (1 Cor 15:26)
No more mourning – No funerals, no grief, no loss
No more crying – No heartbreak, no disappointment
No more pain – No disease, injury, or suffering

This isn’t merely the absence of bad things; it’s the presence of perfect joy, health, and wholeness. The curse of Genesis 3 is completely reversed.

The Declaration of the One on the Throne (v.5-8)

“Behold, I am making all things new.”

God doesn’t say, “I am making all NEW things,” but “I am making all things NEW.” He redeems, restores, and renews what He originally created. Nothing good is lost; everything broken is fixed.

“It is done!” – Just as Jesus cried “It is finished” on the cross, God announces the completion of His redemptive plan. Alpha and Omega, beginning and end—God has brought history full circle.

The promise and the warning (v.6-8):

The thirsty receive living water freely
The conqueror inherits everything and becomes God’s child
But the cowardly, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars are excluded

This isn’t an arbitrary exclusion—these descriptions characterize those who reject Christ and refuse to repent. The unrepentant cannot enter because they would defile what is holy and reject what is good.

PART TWO: THE NEW JERUSALEM DESCRIBED (Revelation 21:9-27)

The City’s Glory and Dimensions (v.9-21)

An angel shows John “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb,” and what John sees is a city—reinforcing that the church and the city are one and the same.

Radiant Glory (v.11)

“Having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

The city shines with God’s own glory—not reflected light, but emanating glory. This is the Shekinah glory that filled the tabernacle and temple, now pervading the entire city. Jasper (possibly diamond) suggests brilliant, pure, transparent light.

The Wall and Gates (v.12-14)

Great high wall – Security and holiness; nothing unclean enters
Twelve gates – Named after the twelve tribes of Israel
Twelve foundations – Named after the twelve apostles
Twelve angels – At each gate as guardians

The number twelve appears repeatedly, symbolizing God’s people from both Old and New Covenants united together. Israel and the church are one in Christ, both welcomed into the eternal city.

The gates are always open (v.25), yet nothing unclean enters (v.27)—perfect freedom and perfect holiness coexist.

Perfect Dimensions (v.15-17)

The city is measured: 12,000 stadia (about 1,400 miles) in length, width, and height—a perfect cube. Only one other structure in the Bible was a perfect cube: the Holy of Holies in the temple (1 Kings 6:20⁴). The entire city is the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God.

Is this literal? Many believe so. The size would easily accommodate all believers throughout history with room to spare. Others see it as symbolic of perfection and completeness. Either way, the point is clear: it’s a real place of unimaginable magnitude and glory.

The wall is 144 cubits (about 200 feet) thick—twelve squared, again emphasizing the complete people of God. A city this size doesn’t need such a wall for protection; it speaks of sanctity and separation from evil.

Precious Materials (v.18-21)

Everything is described in terms of ultimate value and beauty:

Wall of jasper – Diamond-like brilliance
City of pure gold, like clear glass – Transparent gold (if that’s even possible) suggests purity beyond anything we know
Twelve foundations adorned with every kind of jewel – Each foundation stone is a different precious gem, creating a rainbow of color and light
Twelve gates are twelve pearls – Each gate is a single massive pearl
Street of pure gold, like transparent glass – The most valuable substance we know is what we walk on

This isn’t materialism or greed—it’s the Creator using the most valuable and beautiful things we understand to hint at glories beyond our comprehension. If the streets are gold, imagine what the treasures are!

No Temple (v.22-23)

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

This is shocking. Jerusalem’s identity was tied to its temple. But in the New Jerusalem, there’s no need for a temple because God Himself is the temple. No more separation, no more holy of holies hidden behind a veil. Immediate, unmediated access to God—the ultimate intimacy.

The city needs no sun or moon because God’s glory is its light, and the Lamb is its lamp. This echoes Isaiah 60:19-20.⁵ The light is not physical but spiritual, emanating from God Himself. This is light without heat, without shadows, without limitation.

Nations and Glory (v.24-27)

“By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.”

Some interpret this as meaning saved people from every nation. Others see it as suggesting a continuing purpose for redeemed humanity to govern and cultivate the new earth, bringing cultural treasures and good works into the city.

The gates are never shut – Perfect security means perfect openness. No fear of invasion or evil. Yet nothing unclean enters, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood—only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.

PART THREE: THE RIVER OF LIFE (Revelation 22:1-5)

Paradise Restored

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.” (v.1-2a)

This imagery deliberately echoes Eden:

Genesis 2:10 – A river flowed out of Eden
Ezekiel 47:1-12 – A river flowing from the temple bringing life
John 7:38 – Rivers of living water flowing from believers

The river flows from God’s throne through the city—life, refreshment, and satisfaction flowing continually from God Himself to His people.

The Tree of Life

“Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (v.2b)

The tree of life, denied to Adam and Eve after the Fall (Genesis 3:22-24), is now freely accessible. Actually, it’s multiple trees lining both sides of the river—an orchard of life producing fruit continuously.

Twelve kinds of fruit – Perpetual abundance and variety. Fruit each month – Never-ending supply. Leaves for healing – Not because anyone is sick (there’s no more pain or death), but perhaps for ongoing health, vitality, and flourishing. The Greek word therapeia can mean “healing” or “health-giving.”

This is Eden restored and magnified. What was lost is not only regained but exceeded.

No More Curse (v.3-5)

“No longer will there be anything accursed.”

The curse of Genesis 3 is completely removed:

No more thorns and thistles
No more painful labor
No more death
No more enmity between humans and creation
No more separation from God

Instead:

The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it – Central and accessible
His servants will worship him – Eternal, joyful worship and service
They will see his face – The ultimate blessing (Psalm 27:8; Matthew 5:8)
His name will be on their foreheads – Belonging, identity, sealed ownership
No more night – No more darkness, literally or figuratively
They will reign forever and ever – Purposeful authority and responsibility

Seeing God’s face is the pinnacle of human existence. Moses could only see God’s back (Exodus 33:20-23⁶). Now we will see Him face to face, in an intimate relationship, forever.

We will reign – Not idle retirement, but active, creative, purposeful engagement in God’s eternal kingdom. We will have responsibilities, projects, relationships, and growth—all without sin, failure, or frustration.

THEOLOGICAL THEMES AND APPLICATION

1. The Continuity Between Old and New Creation

God doesn’t abandon His original creation; He redeems and perfects it. Your life now—your relationships, work, creativity, learning—is not meaningless. Everything done in faith and love has eternal significance. Your body will be resurrected. The earth will be renewed. Nothing good is wasted.

Application: Live with purpose now. How you invest your time, develop your gifts, love others, and steward creation matters eternally. You’re not waiting to escape Earth; you’re preparing for its renewal.

2. The Physical Reality of Heaven

Heaven is not ghostly or ethereal. It’s a tangible city with walls, gates, streets, rivers, and trees. We will have resurrection bodies, engage in meaningful work, enjoy relationships, and explore God’s new creation.

Application: Don’t despise the physical. God created matter and called it good. The resurrection of the body and the renewal of the earth affirm that physicality is part of God’s eternal design. Worship God with your body. Care for creation. Enjoy God’s good gifts.

3. The Centrality of God’s Presence

The greatest blessing of heaven isn’t golden streets or mansions—it’s being with God. Seeing His face. Knowing Him fully. Worshiping without distraction or sin.

Application: Cultivate intimacy with God now through prayer, worship, and Scripture. Don’t make heaven primarily about comfort or reunion with loved ones—make it about God. If you don’t desire God now, why would you want heaven?

4. The Exclusivity of Salvation

Only those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life enter the city. Salvation is through Christ alone. This isn’t narrow-minded; it’s the gracious provision of the only Savior.

Application: Share the gospel urgently. People you know will either spend eternity in God’s presence or separated from Him forever. Love compels us to warn and invite.

5. The Reversal of the Curse

Everything broken by sin will be restored. Death, pain, sorrow, disease, injustice—all gone. The curse is lifted. Paradise is regained.

Application: Take heart in suffering. Your pain has an expiration date. Don’t lose hope in grief. Death is not the end. Trust God’s promise that He will make all things new.

6. The Purpose and Dignity of Humanity

We will reign with Christ, serve Him, and participate in His kingdom forever. We’re not passive harp-players but active participants in God’s eternal purposes.

Application: You were made for something magnificent. Don’t settle for trivial pursuits. Live with eternity in mind. Develop your gifts. Grow in character. Prepare for your eternal calling.

7. The Already-Not Yet Tension

The kingdom has come in Christ but awaits final consummation. We live between the times—after the decisive victory but before the final celebration.

Application: Live with both confidence and longing. We’re citizens of heaven now (Philippians 3:20), but we haven’t arrived yet. Work for justice and mercy now, knowing full restoration comes later.

CONCLUSION

Revelation 21-22 is not escapist fantasy—it’s the solid hope that has sustained believers through persecution, suffering, and death for two millennia. It’s the promise that every injustice will be answered, every tear justified, every sacrifice vindicated.

More than that, it’s the revelation of what God has always wanted: to dwell with His people in perfect harmony, joy, and love. The New Jerusalem is not primarily about streets of gold or mansions—it’s about being with God, seeing His face, knowing Him fully, and serving Him joyfully forever.

This vision should fundamentally shape how we live today:

It gives us hope in suffering—this isn’t all there is
It gives us perspective in success—earthly achievements are temporary
It gives us urgency in evangelism—people’s eternal destinies are at stake
It gives us purpose in service—what we do in Christ lasts forever
It gives us courage in trials—our current afflictions are “light and momentary” compared to eternal glory (2 Cor 4:17)

The Bible begins in a garden and ends in a garden-city. What was lost in Eden is restored and magnified in the New Jerusalem. The story comes full circle, but the circle is actually an upward spiral—we don’t merely return to Eden; we arrive at something far greater.

And at the center of it all is the Lamb who was slain, the Lion of Judah, the Bright Morning Star—Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the one who makes all things new. He is the light of the city. He is the tree of life. He is our everything.

So we wait with eager expectation, work with faithful diligence, and pray with earnest longing: “Come, Lord Jesus!”

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.

Expanded notes from Zenji’s excerpts:

ZENJIE: We are created for another world, as C. S. Lewis remarked in “Mere Christianity.”

This is a profound insight that captures a fundamental aspect of the human experience. Lewis’s observation speaks to that persistent sense of longing we all feel—the intuition that even our deepest earthly joys are somehow pointing beyond themselves to something greater. It’s why our satisfactions are never quite complete, why beauty moves us to tears, why we ache for a home we’ve never seen.

What makes this idea so compelling is how it reframes our restlessness. Rather than seeing our discontent as a problem to be solved through better circumstances or more achievements, Lewis suggests it’s actually a signpost—evidence that we’re made for transcendence. Just as hunger points to the existence of food, this spiritual homesickness points to an actual home.

It’s a hopeful theology, really. Our deepest dissatisfactions aren’t defects but design features, reminding us not to settle for less than we were made for.

ZENJIE: By the time we get to the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22, human history is complete.

Observation:

This statement captures the finality and urgency embedded in Revelation’s eschatological vision. The New Jerusalem descending in Revelation 21-22 represents not an open-ended future but a culmination—the closing of history’s book. The imagery is both glorious (no more tears, death, or pain) and sobering (the gates that welcome also define who remains outside). It’s a vision that eliminates the comforting ambiguity many prefer, replacing it with stark closure.

Compelling Comments:

What’s striking here is how Revelation functions as both promise and warning. The “no second chance” element isn’t mere theological technicality—it fundamentally shapes how we understand the stakes of human existence. If this vision is true, then history isn’t cyclical or endlessly revisable; it has a deadline.

This creates an interesting tension in Christian thought: infinite divine patience during earthly life, yet an absolute terminus point. The same God who “is patient, not wanting anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9) is also the God who closes the door. It’s grace with a limit—not because God is capricious, but because human decision-making has real consequences that outlast our mortal lives.

The pastoral challenge, of course, is holding this urgency without weaponizing it into manipulation or fear-mongering. Yet the alternative—a universalism that renders earthly choices ultimately meaningless—arguably empties the gospel of both its warning and its wonder. If everyone ends up in the same place regardless, why the incarnation, the cross, the mission?

Perhaps the most sobering aspect is that Revelation offers no hint of post-mortem conversion, no purgatorial second act. The time for response is now—which is either terrifying or clarifying, depending on where you stand.

But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire,
being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies
will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
2 Peter 3:7, 10

Colossians 1:16-17 – by Him all things consist.

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—
All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.

Isaiah 65:17 – new heaven and earth.

For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.

ZENJIE: The Symphony and Biblical Harmony of Scripture: 1600 Years to Revelation

What makes the biblical narrative so remarkable isn’t just its antiquity but its coherence. Across sixteen centuries, through approximately forty authors—shepherds, kings, prophets, fishermen, a physician, a tax collector—spanning three continents and written in three languages, Scripture tells one unified story. This shouldn’t work. By all literary and historical logic, it should be a cacophony of contradictions.

Yet from Genesis to Revelation, we trace a single scarlet thread: creation, fall, promise, redemption, consummation. The seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15 becomes the Lamb slain in Revelation 5. The tree of life lost in Eden’s garden reappears in the New Jerusalem’s garden-city. The curse pronounced in the beginning is finally and fully reversed: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3).

This harmony isn’t manufactured uniformity—the Bible contains diverse genres, perspectives, and emphases. Rather, it’s thematic and theological unity that suggests something beyond mere human orchestration. The prophets speak of what they don’t fully understand; the New Testament writers unlock what was hidden in shadow; John’s Revelation completes what was begun in Moses’ beginning.

Consider that the last human author put down his pen before most of the first generation of Christians had died, yet Revelation assumes and consummates everything written over the preceding millennium and a half. It’s as if the entire biblical library had been composed with the final chapter already in mind.

For the skeptics, this isn’t proof of divine authorship—but it’s certainly consistent with that claim. At minimum, it demands we take seriously the possibility that One Mind guided many hands toward One End.

ZENJIE: The New Heaven no longer operates under the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

Beyond Entropy: The Physics of the New Creation

This is a fascinatingly precise theological observation. The Second Law of Thermodynamics—the principle that all closed systems tend toward disorder, that entropy always increases—is perhaps the most fundamental description of our current reality. It’s why stars burn out, bodies age, civilizations crumble, and death is universal. Entropy is the physical signature of the Fall, the cosmic groan Paul describes in Romans 8.

Brother Zenjie’s insight cuts to something profound: the New Heaven and New Earth aren’t merely improved versions of this reality—they operate under entirely different supernatural laws. Revelation 21:4’s promise that there will be “no more death or mourning or crying or pain” isn’t poetic hyperbole; it’s describing a universe where decay itself has been abolished.

In our present cosmos, the Second Law makes resurrection physically impossible—disorder can’t spontaneously reverse into order. Yet Christ’s physical resurrection was precisely that: entropy running backward, death yielding to life, corruption putting on incorruption. The resurrection wasn’t a violation of nature’s laws but a preview of nature redeemed—a glimpse of physics as God originally intended.

This challenges our imagination. We tend to picture heaven as this world minus the bad parts. But a reality without entropy is almost incomprehensibly other. No rust. No rot. No running down. Energy that doesn’t dissipate. Beauty that doesn’t fade. Bodies that don’t wear out. The tree of life bearing fruit perpetually without exhausting the soil.

It’s not escapism to long for this—it’s longing for the world to finally work right. The New Creation isn’t less physical than our current reality; it’s more physical, freed from the bondage to decay that has subjected it since Genesis 3.

ZENJIE: Imagine one aspect of the flawless nature of heaven from the perspective of a perfect diamond.

The Diamond Analogy: Perfection Without Flaw

This is a masterful image for contemplating heavenly perfection. A truly flawless diamond—the kind gemologists designate as “internally flawless” under 10x magnification—represents the pinnacle of material perfection in our current world. Perfect molecular structure, complete crystal lattice, absolute clarity. Light enters and refracts without distortion, revealing pure brilliance.

Yet even our finest diamonds are only relatively flawless. Under sufficient magnification, imperfections eventually appear. The carbon atoms, however precisely arranged, still exist in a universe governed by entropy. Given enough time, even diamonds deteriorate. “Flawless” in our world is always “flawless enough,” never flawless in any absolute sense.

Heaven’s perfection is different in kind, not merely degree. It’s not just that the flaws are smaller or fewer—it’s that flaw itself has no ontological place there. Just as a perfect diamond has no inclusions, no fractures, no irregularities that interrupt the passage of light, the New Creation has no sin, no entropy, no death—nothing that distorts or diminishes the divine glory that illuminates it.

The analogy becomes even richer when we consider that Revelation describes the New Jerusalem itself in terms of precious stones and crystal-clear transparency (Revelation 21:11, 18-21). The city is compared to jasper, “clear as crystal,” with foundations of every kind of jewel. This isn’t mere decoration—it’s depicting a reality where creation itself becomes perfectly translucent to God’s glory, refracting His light without obstruction.

Scripture says we shall be “like Him” when we see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). Perhaps part of that transformation is becoming, in our glorified bodies, like perfectly cut diamonds—structured to receive and reflect God’s light with absolute clarity, with no internal flaws to create shadows or distortions. Every facet of our being perfectly aligned to display His glory.

The diamond shows us that perfection isn’t bland uniformity. A diamond’s beauty comes precisely from its structure—its many facets each catching and reflecting light differently, creating fire and brilliance. Similarly, heavenly perfection won’t erase our individuality but perfect it, each redeemed soul reflecting God’s glory in ways unique to how He created us, together creating a display of beauty impossible for any single gem alone.

In our present state, we are diamonds in the rough—the potential is there, but we’re marred by sin, encrusted with impurities, our true nature obscured. The work of sanctification is the cutting process, often painful, slowly revealing what we’re meant to be. But in glory, the work is complete. No more cutting needed. Only pure, flawless brilliance—forever.

ZENJIE: The design of the new Jerusalem – a large cube of 1,500 miles on each side.

The Staggering Scale of the New Jerusalem

The dimensions given in Revelation 21:16 are almost too vast to process: 12,000 stadia—approximately 1,400-1,500 miles per side. To put this in perspective, that’s a city roughly the size of the land mass from Maine to Florida, or from London to beyond Istanbul. And it’s not just wide—it’s equally high. A cube 1,500 miles tall reaches far beyond our atmosphere into space itself.

This defies every category of human architecture and urban planning. Our tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, reaches just over half a mile. The New Jerusalem is three thousand times higher. If you placed it over the eastern United States, its top would extend beyond the orbit of the International Space Station.

The sheer immensity serves multiple purposes theologically. First, it communicates abundance beyond scarcity. There’s no overcrowding in eternity, no competition for space, no exclusion due to limited capacity. The dimensions suggest room not just for millions but potentially billions of the redeemed across all human history.

Second, it speaks to God’s grandeur. A deity who prepares a dwelling place of such magnitude is no tribal god, no limited being. This is cosmic-scale glory, creation renewed on a literally universal level.

Third, the perfect cube echoes the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple, which was also cubic (1 Kings 6:20). But where the earthly Holy of Holies was a mere 30 feet per side—a small chamber only the high priest could enter once yearly—the heavenly Holy of Holies is continental in scale. The entire city is the dwelling place of God, perfectly holy, fully accessible. What was once hidden behind a veil becomes an eternal home.

Perhaps most striking is what this says about embodied existence in the new creation. These aren’t metaphorical dimensions for disembodied spirits floating in clouds. This is urban planning for physical, resurrected bodies who will inhabit space, walk streets of gold, dwell in actual proximity to one another and to God. The New Jerusalem is a place—incomprehensibly magnificent, yes, but real and tangible.

Our imaginations fail before such scale, which may be precisely the point. If we could fully conceive of heaven, it wouldn’t be heaven—it would be limited by the boundaries of fallen human comprehension. The immensity is an invitation to worship, to marvel, to recognize that what God has prepared “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

We aren’t going to a minimalist eternity. We’re going home—to a city so vast it makes our greatest metropolitan achievements look like sandcastles, prepared by the Architect of the universe for those He loves.

ZENJIE: Can you even imagine the 12 foundation stones in verses 19-21, and the 12 pearly gates?

The Architecture of Impossible Beauty

Close your eyes and try to picture it: foundation stones made of jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, ruby, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, turquoise, jacinth, and amethyst. Not decorated with these gems—made of them. Foundations massive enough to support a 1,500-mile cubic city, constructed from single crystalline structures of precious stone.

Now scale that image properly. These aren’t gemstones set in a ring or displayed in a museum case. These are geological formations of pure jewel—each foundation stone potentially hundreds of feet thick, stretching for miles. Imagine walking along a foundation of solid sapphire, blue as the deepest ocean and clear as glass, light refracting through it in cascades of azure fire. Or standing where the emerald foundation meets topaz—the transition from deep green to golden yellow like a sunset frozen in crystal.

The visual impact would be overwhelming. Each stone would catch and transform the glory-light of God (Revelation 21:23) differently. The jasper scattering it into diamond-white brilliance, the ruby into crimson depths, the amethyst into royal purple radiance. The city wouldn’t just be illuminated—it would be a living prism, every surface a different facet refracting divine glory into colors we’ve never seen because our current atmosphere and fallen eyes cannot perceive them.

And then the gates: twelve pearls, each gate a single pearl.

Pearls form through irritation, layer by patient layer, beauty born from suffering—perhaps the only earthly gem that requires pain for its creation. How fitting for the gates through which the redeemed enter, we who are perfected through the “pearl of great price” (Matthew 13:46) purchased by Christ’s suffering. But these aren’t cultured pearls a few inches across. These are gates tall enough and wide enough for a city of continental proportions. Single pearls the size of skyscrapers, opalescent and luminous.

Try to imagine approaching one. You’re walking on streets of transparent gold—gold so pure it’s clear as glass (Revelation 21:21), which shouldn’t be possible but somehow is. Ahead, a pearl gate rises hundreds of feet high, its surface not flat but curved with the gentle architecture of organic growth, catching light in subtle waves of pink and silver and cream. The nacre would shimmer with an inner glow, semi-translucent, so that perhaps you could glimpse the glory inside even before entering.

But here’s where imagination truly fails: we’re trying to picture all this using our current references—jewels we’ve seen, pearls we’ve held, colors our eyes can detect. Yet this is a universe beyond entropy, beyond the limitations of our current physics. The colors might include spectrums we cannot now perceive. The gems might have properties that don’t exist in carbon-based, entropy-bound matter. The beauty might operate on frequencies that bypass our eyes entirely and strike directly into our souls.

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Last Battle that every chapter in our current lives is only the cover and title page. “Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” Perhaps the foundation stones and pearly gates are God’s way of saying: “You thought earthly jewels were beautiful? You haven’t seen anything yet.”

The twelve stones also echo the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles (Revelation 21:12-14)—the people of God from both testaments forming the very structure of the eternal city. We’re not just entering a beautiful place; we’re entering a dwelling built from redeemed lives, transformed suffering, and purified faith—all made permanently, incomprehensibly glorious.

The most creative thing about this vision is that it’s not creative at all—it’s a promise. John isn’t making up a fantasy; he’s reporting what he saw, struggling with the poverty of human language to describe the indescribable. When he says “like jasper,” “like crystal,” he’s admitting these are approximations. The reality exceeds the metaphor.

So can we imagine the twelve foundations and twelve gates? Not really. Not yet. Our imaginations are too small, our color palette too limited, our sense of scale too constrained. But one day—one eternal day—we won’t have to imagine. We’ll walk through those pearl gates, stand on those jeweled foundations, and finally understand why every earthly beauty that ever made us catch our breath was just a whisper, a rumor, a faint echo of this.

And perhaps that’s the point. Heaven isn’t meant to be fully imagined—it’s meant to be longed for, hoped for, and ultimately experienced. The impossible beauty is an invitation: “Come and see.”

ZENJIE: Note that the temple in verse 22 is God Himself.

When the Symbol Becomes Reality

“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). This might be the most radical statement in all of Revelation—and that’s saying something in a book filled with dragons, beasts, and cities descending from heaven.

Throughout Scripture, the temple is everything. It’s where heaven touches earth, where God’s presence dwells, where atonement happens, where worship centers. For Israel, the temple wasn’t just important—it was the architectural and theological heart of the entire cosmos. When Solomon’s temple was destroyed, it felt like the end of the world. When the second temple was threatened, Jews were willing to die defending it. The temple was non-negotiable.

And John sees the New Jerusalem and says: no temple.

But this isn’t absence—it’s fulfillment beyond imagining. There’s no temple because there’s no need for mediation anymore. Temples exist to bridge the gap between holy God and sinful humanity, to provide a controlled space where the divine and human can meet without the human being consumed. But in the New Creation, the gap is gone. Sin is abolished. The separation is healed. God doesn’t dwell in a building—He is the building. The entire city becomes what the Holy of Holies only symbolized.

Consider what this means practically: In the old covenant, only the high priest could enter God’s presence, and only once a year, and only with blood. Most Israelites never got closer to God’s manifest presence than the outer courts. Even in eternity past, angels cried “Holy, holy, holy” while veiling their faces (Isaiah 6:2-3). But in the New Jerusalem, the redeemed don’t visit God’s presence—they live in it. Constantly. Directly. Without barrier, without fear, without the need for priestly intermediaries.

The fact that both “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb“ are the temple is equally stunning. The incarnation becomes permanent cosmic architecture. The God-man, Jesus Christ, who bridged divine and human in His own person, now is the meeting place for all eternity. The temple isn’t a structure—it’s a Person. Or rather, Persons in perfect Trinity.

This also means that worship in eternity isn’t about going to a place—it’s about being with a Person. Every moment becomes worship because every moment is lived in the immediate, unmediated presence of God. You don’t travel to the temple for special occasions; you exist within the temple always. The sacred swallows the secular because everything, everywhere, constantly radiates with divine presence.

Perhaps most beautifully, this fulfills what was always meant to be. Eden had no temple—God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. The temple only became necessary after the Fall created distance. Revelation 21 doesn’t introduce something novel; it restores something original and then glorifies it beyond the original. From garden to garden-city, from walking with God to dwelling as His temple, the story comes full circle—but the ending is far greater than the beginning.

No temple needed. Because God Himself—Father, Son, and Spirit—is finally, fully, and forever home.

ZENJIE: Verse 27 is a compelling reminder that nothing unclean will be there.

The Double Edge of Purity: Warning and Hope in One Breath

“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). This single verse manages to be simultaneously terrifying and comforting, depending entirely on where you stand.

The Warning:

This isn’t a suggestion or a preference—it’s an absolute, ontological barrier. The Greek is emphatic: ou mē, a double negative expressing absolute impossibility. Nothing unclean can enter, not merely that it should not. It’s not that God will reluctantly turn people away at the gates; it’s that unholiness and the Holy City are fundamentally incompatible. Oil and water don’t mix by divine decree.

The warning cuts through every comfortable assumption. Church attendance doesn’t guarantee entry. Cultural Christianity doesn’t cut it. Family heritage, religious activity, moral respectability—none of it matters if our names aren’t written in the Lamb’s book of life. This verse eliminates the middle ground we love to occupy, the “good enough” category we create for ourselves.

It also means there’s finality here. No smuggling sin into eternity. No corner of the New Jerusalem where we can harbor our favorite vices “just a little.” No private thoughts that “aren’t hurting anyone.” The purity is absolute and comprehensive. Either we are cleansed by the Lamb’s blood or we remain outside. Tertium non datur⁷—there is no third option.

The Blessed Hope:

But flip the coin and this same verse becomes gloriously liberating. Nothing unclean will be there. Not some things. Not reduced amounts. Not manageable levels. Nothing.

This means no more internal civil war. No more “the evil I don’t want to do, this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). No more temptation whispering in the shadows of our hearts. No more shame over yesterday’s failures. No more fear of tomorrow’s compromises. The sin nature that has dogged every saint since the Fall—gone. Not suppressed, not managed, not white-knuckled into submission. Abolished.

Think of the freedom. You’ll never hurt someone you love through selfishness again. Never gossip. Never lust. Never envy another’s joy. Never feel the tug of pride or the whisper of despair. You’ll be unable to sin—not because you’re constrained but because you’ll be free for the first time, your will finally and fully aligned with goodness itself.

And it’s not just personal holiness—it’s corporate purity. Everyone else in the New Jerusalem is also completely sanctified. No toxic relationships. No abusers. No manipulators. No one who will betray, abandon, or wound you. Every citizen is perfectly trustworthy because every citizen has been perfectly transformed. Community without dysfunction. Love without mixed motives. Vulnerability without risk.

The Hinge:

The verse pivots on one phrase: “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” This is where warning becomes hope. We can’t make ourselves clean—we’ve tried for millennia and failed spectacularly every time. But the Lamb can write our names. He can cleanse us. He already paid the price to do so.

The very existence of this book is hope. God keeps a record, a roster, a reservation list. He’s planning for us to be there. The book exists because inclusion is possible, because the Lamb was slain, because grace makes a way where holiness would otherwise exclude us forever.

So the warning and the hope are two sides of one redemptive reality: Heaven’s purity cannot be compromised, but heaven’s purity can be granted. God will not lower the standard, but He will lift us up to meet it. The city’s gates exclude everything unholy—and yet they stand perpetually open (Revelation 21:25⁸) for the unholy-made-holy to enter.

This is why the gospel matters so desperately. This is why “today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2⁹). This is why the choice we make about the Lamb in this life echoes into eternity. Revelation 21:27¹⁰ doesn’t let us postpone the decision or hedge our bets. It clarifies reality with crystalline precision: either the Lamb’s blood covers you, or the city’s purity excludes you.

But oh, what hope for those who trust Him. Not only will we enter that city—we’ll enter it clean. Completely, permanently, gloriously clean. The door that closes to impurity swings wide for the redeemed. The standard that damns becomes the promise that delivers.

Nothing unclean will be there. And by His grace, we won’t be unclean anymore.

ZENJIE: Chapter 22:1-5 introduces the interior of the city. Incomprehensible.

Inside: A Glimpse Through Failing Words

John stands at the threshold, and for a moment—just a moment—he hesitates. He’s seen the outside: foundations of jewel-stone miles thick, gates of impossible pearl, walls of jasper catching light that has no sun for its source. He’s walked streets of gold so pure they’re transparent, like walking on crystallized sunlight.

But now the angel gestures inward. Come. See what’s inside.

And John steps through.

The River

The first thing that hits him isn’t visual—it’s the sound. Water. Not the trickle of a stream or even the rush of a rapids, but something else entirely. The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb, clear as crystal, and its sound is like…

John gropes for words. Like music? Like laughter? Like a thousand welcomed-homes spoken at once? The river doesn’t just flow—it sings. And everyone who hears it knows, somehow, that they’ll never be thirsty again. Not for water. Not for meaning. Not for love. Not for anything.

He tries to trace its course, but the geometry doesn’t work. The river seems to flow down the middle of the great street, yet also somehow through every part of the city at once. It’s not confined by banks or channels. It goes where life is needed, which in the New Jerusalem means everywhere and always. The water is so clear he can see through it to depths that shouldn’t exist, and in those depths—are those colors? Sounds? Memories? Futures? He doesn’t have categories for what he’s seeing.

The Tree

On each side of the river—no, wait, that’s not quite right. The tree of life is somehow on both sides, as if it’s one tree that exists in multiple locations simultaneously, or perhaps it’s a grove, or maybe space itself works differently here and “sides” is too limiting a concept.

The tree is bearing fruit. Twelve kinds, actually. A different crop each month, though “month” feels wrong because there’s no sun to mark time, no seasons to delineate change. Yet the tree produces, constantly generative, perpetually abundant. John watches as fruit appears—fruit that looks like it contains entire worlds of flavor, nutrition that transcends metabolism, satisfaction that goes soul-deep.

And the leaves. The angel tells him the leaves are “for the healing of the nations.” But who needs healing in a place where death and mourning and crying and pain are no more? John puzzles over this until he realizes: it’s not healing from sickness but healing into wholeness. The leaves don’t cure disease—they complete joy. They don’t mend what’s broken—they perfect what’s already been made whole. It’s healing the way a symphony heals silence, the way sunrise heals night. Not correcting damage but fulfilling design.

He reaches out to touch a leaf, and the texture is like nothing on earth. Velvet and silk and cool water and warm bread all at once. And when his finger brushes it, he feels—knows—every nation that leaf will heal. He sees Babel’s confusion becoming Pentecost’s understanding. He sees dividing walls demolished. He sees every tribe and tongue and people gathered, distinct but unified, diverse but harmonious.

The Throne

Then John sees it: the throne of God and of the Lamb. Not a throne in the city. Not a throne above the city. The throne is somehow the center of everything, the point from which all reality radiates, even though there’s no point because the city is a cube and…

His mind can’t hold it.

The throne is occupied. Father and Son, distinct yet undivided, and the glory emanating from them is the light source for everything. Not light that illuminates but light that constitutes. Take away that glory and the city wouldn’t just go dark—it would cease to be.

And from the throne, the river. And beside the river, the tree. And around it all, the redeemed, who “will see his face” (22:4).

The Face

This is what breaks John. Not the architecture, not the jewels, not even the river or the tree. The faces of the redeemed, looking directly at God’s face. The thing Moses begged for and was denied. The thing that would have killed any son of Adam in the old creation. The beatific vision that theologians wrote about with longing and uncertainty.

Here, it’s just… normal. A child looks up at the Father’s face with the same ease she’d look at her earthly father, but with infinite more delight. An old man gazes into the eyes of Christ and laughs—actually laughs—with the sheer joy of finally, finally seeing the One he’d loved by faith for so long.

And on their foreheads, a name. His name. They belong to Him visibly, permanently, joyfully. No more hidden faith. No more private devotion. The relationship is public, celebrated, sealed.

The Incomprehensible Part

John tries to capture it all—the interior of the city—but how do you describe color to the blind? How do you explain symphony to the deaf? He’s using Greek words forged in a fallen world to describe realities that have never existed in a fallen world.

“Nearly incomprehensible to our human understanding,” the preacher will say centuries later, and John—if he could reach across time—would nod vigorously. Yes. Exactly. I saw it and I can’t explain it. I touched it and I can’t convey it. I was there and words fail.

The river flows but also stands still. The tree is many and one. The light has no source yet comes from a throne. Space is cubic but also seems infinite. Time passes—fruit appears monthly—yet eternity means time has stopped, or maybe been fulfilled, or perhaps redeemed into something altogether other.

The only word that comes close is home. Not home like the house you grew up in. Home like the place you’ve been homesick for your entire life without knowing such a place existed. Home like the answer to every longing, the fulfillment of every ache, the completion of every incompleteness.

John kneels, and the angel has to tell him twice to get up, stop worshiping created beings, worship God alone. But can you blame him? He’s inside. He’s seen the interior. And having seen it, how can he ever be satisfied with anything less?

The Return

When John comes back to Patmos, back to his aging body and his exile and his world under Roman occupation, he picks up his stylus with shaking hands. He must write this down. He must tell them. But the words…

The river of the water of life, clear as crystal…

The tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit…

They will see his face…

It’s not enough. It will never be enough. But it’s all he has. So he writes, knowing that every reader will have to do what he did—take the words as signposts pointing to something nearly incomprehensible, almost unimaginable, yet more real than anything they’ve ever known.

The interior of the city. Where the river sings and the tree heals and the throne illuminates and the redeemed finally, finally see His face.

Come, Lord Jesus. Let us inside.

ZENJIE: We will have unlimited, eternal, and creative things to do. Eternity in heaven will not involve boredom, drudgery, inactivity, purposelessness, or senselessness.

The Eternal Adventure: A Life Without Limits

One of the most tragic misconceptions about heaven is that it will be boring—an endless church service where we float on clouds, strum harps, and sing the same hymn for trillions of years. This caricature has done incalculable damage, making eternity sound like the ultimate tedium, holiness like lobotomized monotony.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The God of Creativity

Consider who prepared this place: the God who invented the platypus and the northern lights, who designed DNA and galaxies, who created taste buds and symphonies and the sensation of jumping into cool water on a hot day. The God whose creativity is so excessive that He made millions of species of beetles—beetles—each with unique patterns and behaviors. The God who didn’t just make flowers functional but beautiful, who gave birds songs more complex than they need for mere survival.

This God is preparing activities for eternity? They won’t be boring.

Dominion Restored

Remember, humanity was given dominion in Genesis—the mandate to cultivate, create, explore, and develop creation. Sin didn’t erase that calling; it corrupted it. Our work became toil, frustrated by thorns and futility (Genesis 3:17-19). But in the New Creation, the curse is lifted. We get dominion back—perfected, unlimited, eternally fulfilling.

What does that look like practically? We don’t know all the details, but Scripture hints: we’ll reign with Christ (Revelation 22:5), we’ll serve Him (Revelation 22:3), we’ll bear fruit (John 15:16). These aren’t passive activities. Reigning requires decisions, leadership, governance. Serving suggests meaningful tasks. Bearing fruit implies ongoing productivity and growth.

Creativity Unleashed

Think about your deepest creative impulses now—the novel you want to write, the equation you want to solve, the garden you want to cultivate, the song you want to compose, the building you want to design, the recipe you want to perfect. Now imagine pursuing those impulses with:

Perfect focus: No distraction, no mental fatigue, no attention deficit

Infinite time: No deadline anxiety, no need to choose between projects

Complete resources: No budget constraints, no material limitations

Unbounded ability: Your mind and body working at full, glorified capacity

Perfect collaboration: Working alongside others with no ego, no miscommunication, no conflicting visions

Divine inspiration: Direct access to the Source of all creativity Himself

You could spend a thousand years mastering music and never exhaust the possibilities. Another thousand exploring the physics of the new creation. Another thousand cultivating gardens that make Eden look like a window box. And you’d still be at the beginning of eternity, with infinite vistas of discovery still ahead.

Learning Forever

God is infinite, which means there will always be more to discover about Him. Eternity won’t be endless repetition of what we already know—it will be endless exploration of inexhaustible depths. Every encounter with God will reveal new facets of His character, new dimensions of His love, new reasons for worship.

And it’s not just theology. The new heavens and new earth are physical. Will there be new sciences to discover? New arts to pioneer? If a cubic city 1,500 miles per side can exist, what other marvels populate the renewed cosmos? Will we explore new worlds? Chart new territories? The redeemed aren’t evacuated from creation; we’re restored to it, upgraded and glorified.

Relationships Perfected

Consider the relational dimension. You’ll have eternity to know and be known by billions of the redeemed across all of human history. Deep, meaningful friendships take time—time we’ll finally have unlimited amounts of. You could spend a century in conversation with the apostle Paul, another with Augustine, another with that quiet saint from your church who never made history books but whose faithfulness moved heaven.

Every relationship will be life-giving, never draining. No small talk needed—you can dive straight into the deep things because there’s no fear, no posturing, no self-protection required. And unlike earthly friendships that fade through distance or death, these relationships only deepen, forever.

Worship as Joy, Not Duty

Yes, we’ll worship. But worship in heaven won’t be the tedious obligation some imagine. It will be the spontaneous overflow of joy, like applauding after a breathtaking performance, like cheering when your team scores, like laughing at a perfect joke. When you finally see clearly how good God is, how wise His plans were, how thoroughly His love has won—worship won’t be something you have to do. It will be the only fitting response to glory that exceeds all imagining.

And our worship will likely be creative, diverse, multi-faceted. If God loves variety enough to make snowflakes unique, He’s not looking for uniform, cookie-cutter praise. Your worship will be uniquely yours—expressed through whatever gifts and passions He’s woven into your design, perfected and offered back to Him.

The Opposite of Boredom

Boredom is what happens when stimulation is insufficient or repetitive. But in God’s presence, where joy is fullest (Psalm 16:11), where pleasures are at His right hand forevermore, where we’re finally operating at full capacity in a universe no longer subject to decay—boredom becomes impossible.

Drudgery is what happens when work is frustrating, when efforts yield meager results, when labor is alienated from purpose. But we’ll serve in a kingdom where our work is never in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58), where we see immediate fruit, where every effort perfectly accomplishes its intended purpose.

Inactivity and purposelessness are diseases of the Fall—the curse made work toilsome, so we oscillate between exhausting labor and numbing rest. But in the New Creation, activity and rest achieve perfect balance. We’ll never be exhausted, so rest isn’t recovery—it’s celebration. We’ll never be idle, so work isn’t obligation—it’s adventure.

The Story Continues

C.S. Lewis ended The Last Battle with perhaps the most hopeful line in all literature: “For them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world had been only the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

We’re not heading toward The End. We’re heading toward The Beginning. The real adventure starts when this shadow-life concludes. Everything you’ve experienced of beauty, joy, creativity, purpose, love, and meaning in this life? That was the preview. The faintest echo. The coming attraction before the feature film.

Eternity won’t be the exhausted conclusion after a long, hard life. It will be waking up on the first day of summer vacation as a child, with infinite possibilities stretching ahead and perfect strength to pursue them all. It will be starting the adventure you were always meant for, with the limitations finally stripped away and your true capacity finally unleashed.

So What Now?

If this is true—if eternity is unlimited creativity, purposeful activity, endless discovery, perfect relationships, and joy upon joy upon joy—then two things follow:

First, the gospel becomes even more urgent. What’s at stake isn’t just avoiding punishment; it’s gaining everything. Missing heaven isn’t just escaping hell—it’s forfeiting the life you were designed for, the adventures that bear your name, the eternity of purposeful joy that God prepared specifically for you.

Second, the present takes on new meaning. The creative urges you feel now? They’re training. The work you do, even mundane tasks? Practice for reigning. The relationships you build? Eternal friendships in formation. The worship you offer? Rehearsal for the grand symphony. Nothing is wasted. Every act of faithfulness, every moment of growth, every choice for holiness is shaping the person you’ll be forever.

We’re not killing time until heaven. We’re becoming the people who will thrive there—learning to love what God loves, to create as He creates, to find our joy in His glory. Eternity doesn’t make this life meaningless; it makes this life the prologue to infinite meaning.

So press on. Run the race. Fight the fight. Keep the faith. Because ahead—just ahead—lies not an ending but a beginning. Not retirement but commissioning. Not rest from all work but release into the work you were born for.

The best is yet to come. And it will keep getting better. Forever.

Footnote

1
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
3
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
4
The inner sanctuary[a] was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar.
5
The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
6
But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
7
Tertium non datur is a Latin phrase meaning “no third is given,” and it refers to the law of the excluded middle, a fundamental principle in classical logic. This principle states that for any given binary proposition, there are only two possible options: it is either true, or it is false; there is no middle ground or “third option”.
8
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
9
For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
10
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

“A New City in Heaven,” E.V.I.C. Sermon by Zenjie Caneda from Revelation 21-22

Approximate reading time: 30 – 40 minutes.

Meet our Deacon, Zenjie Caneda.

A New City in Heaven

Comprehensive Bible Study and Sermon on Revelation 21-22

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH (Revelation 21:1-8)

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (v.1)

The Renewal of All Things

The Holy City Descends (v.2)

God Dwelling With His People (v.3-4)

The End of Suffering (v.4)

The Declaration of the One on the Throne (v.5-8)

PART TWO: THE NEW JERUSALEM DESCRIBED (Revelation 21:9-27)

The City’s Glory and Dimensions (v.9-21)

Radiant Glory (v.11)

The Wall and Gates (v.12-14)

Perfect Dimensions (v.15-17)

Precious Materials (v.18-21)

No Temple (v.22-23)

Nations and Glory (v.24-27)

PART THREE: THE RIVER OF LIFE (Revelation 22:1-5)

Paradise Restored

The Tree of Life

No More Curse (v.3-5)

THEOLOGICAL THEMES AND APPLICATION

1. The Continuity Between Old and New Creation

2. The Physical Reality of Heaven

3. The Centrality of God’s Presence

4. The Exclusivity of Salvation

5. The Reversal of the Curse

6. The Purpose and Dignity of Humanity

7. The Already-Not Yet Tension

CONCLUSION

Expanded notes from Zenji’s excerpts:

Footnote

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Approximate reading time: 30 – 40 minutes.

Meet our Deacon, Zenjie Caneda.

A New City in Heaven

Comprehensive Bible Study and Sermon on Revelation 21-22

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH (Revelation 21:1-8)

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” (v.1)

The Renewal of All Things

The Holy City Descends (v.2)

God Dwelling With His People (v.3-4)

The End of Suffering (v.4)

The Declaration of the One on the Throne (v.5-8)

PART TWO: THE NEW JERUSALEM DESCRIBED (Revelation 21:9-27)

The City’s Glory and Dimensions (v.9-21)

Radiant Glory (v.11)

The Wall and Gates (v.12-14)

Perfect Dimensions (v.15-17)

Precious Materials (v.18-21)

No Temple (v.22-23)

Nations and Glory (v.24-27)

PART THREE: THE RIVER OF LIFE (Revelation 22:1-5)

Paradise Restored

The Tree of Life

No More Curse (v.3-5)

THEOLOGICAL THEMES AND APPLICATION

1. The Continuity Between Old and New Creation

2. The Physical Reality of Heaven

3. The Centrality of God’s Presence

4. The Exclusivity of Salvation

5. The Reversal of the Curse

6. The Purpose and Dignity of Humanity

7. The Already-Not Yet Tension

CONCLUSION

Expanded notes from Zenji’s excerpts:

Footnote

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